This Wicked Gift (Carhart, Book 0.5)

This Wicked Gift (Carhart, Book 0.5)

Courtney Milan

Language: English

Pages: 82

ISBN: 1535328169

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub

Lavinia Spencer is too poor to be anything but practical. But when her younger brother lands himself in trouble, she has no choice but to do the unthinkable. She accepts the help of the dishonorable man that she's always wanted, even knowing that it might mean her ruination...This Wicked Gift is a novella prequel to the Carhart series. The full series is:- This Wicked Gift, a prequel novella- Proof by Seduction- Trial by DesireThis historical romance novella is an enhanced ebook. The unenhanced text was originally published in the anthology "The Heart of Christmas." This work contains pictures, audio, and author commentary. You can read this enhanced ebook on any device, but the audio content may not be accessible on all ereaders. That content has been made available on the web, so you won't miss anything if your device doesn't support audio.

to find work again; his wages might even be reduced. He ought to have been terrified. But this was not a punishment, to be allowed to walk out of this dark and dismal place. It was an opportunity. The two lords stepped into the back office. After a few minutes Mr. Dunning walked up to William and whispered that he’d been asked to enter the room. They were unlikely to be inviting him to a picnic lunch. Just before he stood, Mr. Dunning laid his hand on William’s shoulder—an empty gesture of

slightest encouragement. Ten pounds would be nothing to him—and the butcher was hardly alone in his lust. William could not countenance the thought. He could not envision her beneath that fat, toothless man. And besides, the upright Miss Spencer chided her brother about bribery and petty theft. She would never stray from a husband, no matter how many teeth the man lost. If she married, William would never be able to pretend—not even on the darkest, loneliest nights—that he would one day have

wrote that was released in 2009. One of the things that I was trying to do with this novella (and whether I was successful at it, is up to the reader to judge) was to flip the gendered experience of sexual intercourse. In the usual way of historicals, the woman experiences pain due to the loss of her virginity, and may not feel any pleasure at all during the act. She feels all the consequences of social expectation, all the worry that if her choice is uncovered, she’ll be ruined. To the degree

too subtle, because now I can’t find all the references. The only one I can say for sure is a Messiah-reference is this: “You?” The solicitor laughed in scorn. “Well, trust in yourself, then. You’ll not deliver yourself from poverty.” Which is a reference to: “All they that see him laugh him to scorn: they shoot out their lips, they shake their heads, saying: He trusted in God that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, if he delight in him.” —Handel’s Messiah, No. 27 Yeah, that one was

would take. Lavinia’s beauty was not a mere accident that arose from the fall of hair against shoulder, the curves of her breasts, the petals of her sex. No, even now, spread before him like an offering, she glowed with an inner light. Her appeal had as much to do with the innate trust she placed in those around her, in the way she smiled and greeted everyone as if they were worthy of her attention. If he took her, like this, he’d shatter her trust in the world. He would show her that men were